Four years into SNK's Neo Geo home console (the AES), they decided to jump into the game industry's move to discs with a new unit. While the vast majority of the games were exactly the same as their cartridge counterparts gameplay-wise, the CD format was immensely cheaper to produce and stock, meaning consumers could get $300-$400 (in '90s money!) games now for $50-$75 instead.
Sadly, their CD console wasn't destined for much - It was competing against the incredible Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and a handful of other disc-based units that were all selling more and gaining mass hype. The Neo Geo CD loading times were horrible (think up to 30 seconds between fighting game rounds!), and later units didn't speed up much. Also, there were no upgrades to the unit itself that weren't already seen in SNK's original home console - A lack of 3D ability made it inferior on the market.
One cool feature to mention, though, is that most titles released for the Neo Geo CD often had completely re-arranged, CD-quality soundtracks that were out of this world! My preference on any Neo Geo AES title is to play the CD version instead just because of this!
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Download Links
Archive.org's torrent feature often does not work, so please don't use it - Downloads can fail or be incomplete. If you're wanting to help preserve this set, you can use the links below to download each part you want instead:
What you came here for! Only the best stuff. (93 titles, 26.96 GB)
The rest of the games that require proficiency in other languages to play. (8 titles, 2.05 GB)
You need some of these to run the titles properly. (32 items, 5.2 MB)
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Want to learn how I put my collections together, discover my other vintage content, or join the Retro Game Champion community on Discord, Twitch, and your socials? Head to retrogamechampion.com! I'd love to welcome you to the project.
Champion Collection Release Notes
Special items included:
An English-patched translation and games not in English that are easy enough to play without being fluent in another language.
Items removed:
Non-working dumps, duplicates, prototypes of games that eventually saw a full release, homebrew titles past the Neo Geo AES console's lifespan, and games that require proficiency in another language to play.
Additional information:
Tested with the NeoCD (2022 71ebe50) core in RetroArch
Format: .chd
Please note:
Using the NeoCD RetroArch core is highly recommended, as it supports CHD format as well as a default option to skip the long CD loading times in the majority of these titles.
Where to put the included BIOS files? Check your emulator/frontend's documentation.
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11
